When the Homily is about Immunology

More Bishop Ware on Salvation...

Yes, I still am absorbing from this little booklet.

You'll often hear Orthodox say (generally in contrast to Augustine's popularization in the West) that we do not share in the "original guilt" of "original sin", but rather share the consequences (death, inclination toward sin). I believe I mentioned before that Bishop Ware makes note of the progressive nature of humanity's sin in that we can now say that Adam and Eve have got no sin compared to what I manage to accomplish from day to day. Anyway, we share in the consequences of the Fall because we share in the nature of Adam and Eve. Bishop Ware says: "Adam lives in us..." And as such we DO have a "natural" responsibility to repent, whether we personally sin or not - good luck. He calls it "vicarious repentence" and quotes St. Mark the Monk:

The Saints are required to offer repentence not only on their own behalf
but also on behalf of their neighbor, for without active love they cannot be made
perfect...in this way the whole universe is held together in unity,
and through God's providence we are each of us assisted by one another.

Further Bishop Ware cautions us against thinking of such "vicarious repentence" as being needed because of guilt or ANY judicial paradigm. He points instead to the mystical and organic unity of humankind - one body. And finally, at this point, he quotes Dostoievsky:

Everything, like the ocean flows and enters into contact with everything else. Touch one place,
and you set up a movement at the other end of the world...you have only one means of Salvation:
take hold of yourself and make yourself responsible for the sins of all humanity.